Dewey Mini-Challenge Hour 4: State Settings

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The official winner, chosen by random.org, is Suey of It's All About Books. Congrats! You guys all had such amazing answers, I love it!

Welcome to the Dewey Read-a-Thon Hour Four mini-challenge! I hope you all are still going strong at this point.Setting can be such an essential part of a book. Sometimes reading can give us a wonderful taste for a new location and almost make us feel like we've traveled there ourselves.When I’m about to travel to a new place, I love reading books set there. It’s also a great way to supplement travel when money or vacation time is tight. Armchair travel can give you a little wanderlust fix until you can hit the road again.To participate in this challenge, please name three books (fiction or nonfiction) that are good representations of the USA state in which they are set. You can pick three books set in one state or books set in different states, it doesn’t matter.There are so many books set in Europe, India, etc. that evoke the atmosphere of that country, but for this challenge I’m only looking for books set in the US. For example, To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful representation of small town life in Alabama, John Steinbeck’s novels are the embodiment of depression-era California and Dave Egger’s Zeitoun is a powerful example of nonfiction set in Louisiana.Each person who provides three examples will be entered to win a copy of “Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen's Bath to Ernest Hemingway's Key West.” I have my own copy of this book and I love it! I consult it every time I go on a trip to see if there are any fun literary places to stop along the way.

Just leave a comment with your three examples on this post. The only requirement is that you provide an e-mail address where I can reach you and that your three examples are set within the USA. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!This challenge is open internationally. It will remain open for three hours and then, at the beginning of hour seven, I will close it and select a winner at random. I'll e-mail the winner so they can send me their full name and address.

I have to go with Travels with Charley by Steinbeck. While it isn't necessarily set in one U.S. state, it is a great representation of what different areas of the country are like. It is moving, emotional, and representative of the diversity of Americans.

I'll also pick a recent read of mine...Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. It is a Native American based piece, and really touches on the differences between Native Americans and the rest of America. It captures a culture so distinctly and beautifully. I love the descriptions of the Southwest-an area I am unfamiliar with!

My last choice...I'm going to pick Their Eyes Were Watching God, set in Florida. There is a scene in the book with a hurricane, and with the description of the wind and the heat...well, it seems fitting. I don't think I could live somewhere so hot and susceptible to crazy weather patterns! (not that Michigan is any better).

Hi Melissa!! Of course you used To Kill a Mockingbird...my favorite book of all time!!

1. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman is set in Savannah, and it's a lovely representation of a slower southern pace.2. The Immproper Life of Bezelia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore set in Nashville TN,it also shows a life in the 1960's when all things that others could see were so important.3. The Help, by Katheryn Stockett. Again set in the south, do you see a much loved theme starting here? I love her representation of the Mobile, it's ladies of leisure and their Junior League type activities. The maids and women who cares for their babies and how they were treated. You can reach me at extexgirl2 at aol dot com. Happy reading!!

1. One of my favorite series of books is "The Cat Who..." series by Lilian Jackson Braun. The actual state where Pickax City is located is never mentioned, but it's known to be in the Northeast Central part of the country - Wisconsin?? Even though the state isn't specific, it's a great depiction of small town life and people.

2. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plus is the ultimate Jersey girl.

3. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series gives me a wonderful picture of California - San Francisco, specifically.

(1) Catering to Noone by Diane Mott Davidson - Good example of Colorado.(2) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - The raininess and weather is just like Washington.(3) Any book by Sarah Dessen - I lived in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina for a while and it is so much like Dessen's created world in North Carolina.

1. I just finished reading How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper, and it was set in Alaska. The setting definitely fed into the story, as how remote and harsh the weather was in that area was used in the plot of the story.

2. Anything in the Stephanie Plum series is a good example, so we'll just pick the first one, One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, set in New Jersey, the stores/restaurants and attitude of the area figure very prominently in the stories.

3. For my third choice I'll pick State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy, not a book I've read yet, but am looking forward to, a mystery series centered around the White House Chef, so that will have to use Washington DC as a big part of the story!

The Comforts of Home is set in Texas and everything about this books says Texas to me. The hometown feel. Community coming together. Horses and Rodeo and more.

The Next Always is set in Maryland and it is all about the small town. I love the descriptions of the the streetscapes and the small businesses in town and how everyone remembers how things used to be.

Something Borrowed is set in New York City and boy does it represent the fast moving pace and the lifestyle. That and people going to the Hamptons and the sights and smells of the City.

1. She's So Money by Cherry Cheva is a great depiction on Ann Arbor, Mi.2. These is my Words by Nancy E. Turner is such a great depiction of the Arizona Territories back in the 1800s.3. The Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz is a great depiction of Pico Mundo, California.

That's a tough one as I'm not from the states, it's hard to know if that's a true representation or not! I'll try though!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Mississippi)Any book by Stephen King (Bangor, Maine) --> Okay, maybe minus all the creepiness... it's more the actual setting rather than the circumstances!Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (New York)

1. Shelter by Sarah Stonich (Minnesota author telling her true story of living in Northern Minnesota) its actually quite hilarious as I live in Minnesota too and I am reading this book during the read a thon)

2. Beloved by Toni Morrison (warning this book will tear you up about former slaves after the civil war years in a small town in Ohio)

1. Wynette, Texas - Call Me Irresistable by Susan Elizabeth Phillips2. New York - Summer in the City - Candace Bushnell (I love New York)3. Kentucky - having lived there I have to give a shout out to this wonderful state - Kentucky Sunrise by Fern Michaels

I also like to read books about places that I am visiting!! When I travel I always try to have a book of that area with me. :)

1. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (New York)2. Most things by Stephen King, but especially the later Dark Tower books (Maine)And I have to say 3. The Grapes of Wrath (California) for that bit where they drive over the mountains and can see into the valley below? Amazing.

I agree with Lucy because I am currently almost finished with A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley that is a wonderful book for Iowa. Farming has got to be one of the main characters in that book.

Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food for California. I know that its a cookbook but Alice and her restaurant so revolutionized the food movement here and for the rest of the world that I think this really meant something that I novel can't.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry for Texas. I know they go North but for me when I read that book it's about Texas and those cowboy's love for Texas!

Since I'm in Cleveland I have to say that Les Roberts's Milan Jacovich mystery series captures this blue collar city perfectly. Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt put Savannah on my list of places I musst visit. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Peck made me feel like I was on a Vermont farm.stacybooks at yahoo

Oh wow this is hard! So many of the books I read a fantasy and science fiction, I don't have many books that are sent in present USA. OK here's my go:

1. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan - NYC (THE STRAND!)

2. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen - I think it's a good representation of West Virginia and the mining community

3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - West Virginia (again) and Mojave Desert. This might be cheating because it's a memoir but I totally felt like I was in every place she described. The setting is beautifully done.

Posted about it here: http://www.caribousmom.com/2011/10/22/update-24-hour-read-a-thon-hours-5-6/

My three books are all set in New England:New Hampshire – Down from Cascom Mountain by Ann Joslin Williams Massachusetts – The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent Maine – Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

Rating System

I rate on my personal reaction to the book, not its literary merit: ★ = one star ☆ = 1/2 star
★★★★★: A new favorite, a must-read
★★★★: Liked it a lot, but won't reread
★★★: Nothing special, but OK
★★: Not my cup of tea
★: Waste of time